Thursday, January 31, 2008

The Week from H-E-Double Hockey Stick

Aiyiyi! This week just refuses to end. Quaratine ended on Tuesday for us but we couldn't go anywhere because my car was still in the shop. Carson couldn't go to daycare and we didn't get a break. He was sick of being in the house, we were sick of being in the house, and poor Jeremy was trying to listen to 50 people on a phone instead of being in the room. Tensions were running high!

Wednesday, thought we could take Carson in to daycare but more snow and still no 4WD. Plus he was getting sick and was super clingy and SUPER whiney! Jeremy was even more frustrated and I was sick of having to deal with our crying clingon. Jeremy finally arranged a flight to Santa Clara even though he wouldn't arrive until past 11 pm. I had evening meeting with clients so my parents had to take Carson. Got home late and had to work even later.

Jeremy didn't sleep at all and I woke up at 1:30am to our house alarm beeping wildly. Lovely. That can only mean one thing. No power, no heat, no water, no light. It came back on at some point but then went out again, sending the alarm into loud screaming again at 2:30. Then Carson woke up coughing and crying at 5:30 am. He was so worked up I had to take him back to bed with me, plus the house was freezing so he needed the warmth.

At 7:30 am, we got up without power. That also means no fax, no email. So I had to bundle us up and head down to the office to send off my client's offer by 8:30. That's when I decided to take Carson to daycare for the day to make my noon meeting. However he was still coughing and crying and clingy. I was feeling guilty and mean but needing some alone time in a bad way. Then my noon meeting got cancelled so I headed home with my sick son. Thank GOD the power had come back on!! We were reading books quite nicely when Carson coughed so hard that he vomited all over us. There are times when being a parent is just gross.

Later in the day Carson was helping me preview homes in St. Helens. I've gotten in the habit of leaving the diaper bag at home and just risking it with my emergency diaper. It has worked well so far. Carson decided to dump a load in the second house. No problem. Just used the diaper and kept going. An hour later we were showing the first of two homes to clients and Carson decided it would be a fabulous time to drop another load. WHAT?!?! How embarrassing! No diaper!! My clients offered up their son's diaper but at a mere size 2, it wouldn't even fit around Carson's thigh. I made a few frantic phone calls to the people I know who have size 4 diapers between the first house and the second house. Luckily Jeremy Davis met me at his front door with a rescue diaper.

This week just seems to keep going and going like a bad luck Energizer bunny. Tomorrow night calls for a vat of wine!!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Poor Nana- She Got It!

Update on that nasty virus! The minute I discovered it was a virus rather than food poisoning, I hightailed it over to pick up Carson from Nana & Poppa's. Unfortunately it was too late!!! This wildly contagious illness caught up with Nana just 24 hours later. It hit her at midnight last night and she is down for the count! Now if only we could convince Poppa to come home from work because he is a ticking time bomb!! Literally a bomb! This thing is explosive, if you know what I mean!! I think we'll remain in quarantine for another 24 hours to save the rest of the population.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Bad Things Happen in Three's

We had a very fun trip planned to our beach house for the weekend with several other families. However Carson barfed twice on Friday (and had diarrhea) so the group trip to the beach house was cancelled. But other than that Carson had no signs of illness. We decided to go ahead and go to the beach by ourselves. The drive out was great, Friday night was fun. Saturday we had a blast at the aquarium (with plans to go to the outlet center on Sunday). Lunch at Mo’s was yummy! Dinner at Kyllo’s was delicious. We went to bed around 11. Then all hell broke loose within an hour.

We thought we had food poisoning in the worst way! Thank GOD there were two bathrooms! Jeremy spent the night on the couch downstairs and the floor of the bathroom. I went back and forth from the bedroom to the bathroom trying not to wake up Carson. I’ll spare you the gorey details but it was hourly trips to the bathroom with both ends in action until 7 in the morning. We both got maybe an hour of sleep. We headed home early at 9:15 -no Outlet mall :-(

We got through the dry heaves in the car, made it through the ice and snow in the pass, and then about 20 minutes from home, my car started to break down. At this point, I lost it and started crying. Our bodies hurt so badly and Carson was done being in the car for over 2 hours. We barely made it to my mom and dad’s to drop Carson off. My car broke down in our driveway. That night as I was calling friends and clients to cancel appointments, I discovered that several friends were stricken with the same symptoms. Apparently we didn’t have food poisoning but the terrible virus that is going around, similar to Norovirus. I made Jeremy cancel his flight to Santa Clara and he’s missing a huge meeting.

This morning my car was towed off and we just got word that the fuel pump has to be replaced.

Then I decided to try driving up Logie Trail Rd. in Jeremy’s car (coming home from St. Helens). I figured it couldn’t be too icy since the temp had come up. Well, I made it halfway up and then hit solid snow. Being front wheel drive, Jer’s car couldn’t go uphill. So I was stuck in the middle of the road trying to figure out what to do. Then I started sliding backward toward a drop off. I gave it enough gas to back up to a shoulder. Then I tried going forward, only somehow I had too much momentum and slid right into the ditch. I couldn’t believe it!! I managed to inch it back and forth enough to get it out. When I could pull over, I got out and found a few scratches. Got home and rubbed at the scratches, only to realize that I dented the entire front bumper!!! Unreal!!! Jer took it much better than I thought he would!

So we are still home recooperating and Carson has been a holy terror demanding more attention than he usually does. We let him watch a little more tv than usual today!

Here are the cute pics of the better part of our weekend!

I love fish!!
That's a lot of fish!!
More Starbucks please!
Brrr! That's cold and prickly!
Daddy! I want to learn to dive too!
Go Speed Racer! We are blurry because I'm running soo fast!
Seals are cool! I don't care that it's raining.
Mommy?! Mommy, is there something behind me? I don't think this is a hat mommy!
We found some glow sticks at the beach house!! I love glow sticks!

So as parents we are enjoying some of the sillier things in life. Here we all are enjoying glow sticks in the dark! Carson has the green one.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Weak Week of Pics!!

My apologies to Carson's fans but life around our house is so busy right now and we just haven't made picture taking a priority. Here are some cute pics of Ian and Carson at Ian's house.
Cozy on the couch! A little leopard print never hurt ;-)
Nothing like a little "show" to keep unhappy boys happy!
Snack time!
This time Carson and Ian were playing at our house. Sharing is a very difficult concept for Carson right now. He gets extremely possessive of his toys at his house. Thus, I purchased two books on toddler discipline! Shortly I will be armed with new skills! Hopefully I can keep my cool and remember to use them!
Fortunately the BBQ has plenty of room for two! Carson is mustarding up his burger!

Ian, are you cooking for Carson?
When we have a rough week, it is usually followed by a good week. This week has been terrific! Tuesday morning was not good though. This was Carson's 4th week at daycare. It hasn't been going great and I was starting to lose faith. I was feeling guilty that he cried a lot while he was there. I felt terrible that he didn't sleep while he was there. I am usually pretty stoic when it comes to Carson crying. It's very common for kids to cry when they are dropped off. He even does it at his regular sitter's house (Jeremy & Ian) but he has a great time there. However, Tuesday morning, as we pulled up to "school", Carson saw the building and started crying. It broke my heart and I teared up. A rarity for me and I instantly told myself to knock it off. I left him crying on the teacher's shoulder and proceeded to feel terrible the rest of the day. Then I was late picking him up and was racked with guilt that he hadn't slept all day and here I was late.

Well, it turns out Carson had a "good" day at daycare! His teachers were thrilled to report that he ate all his snacks and lunch AND he TOOK A NAP! On the cot!! For almost an hour!! I was beside myself with excitement. The guilt flew off like a popped ballon and I couldn't stop smiling.

So today when I dropped him off and flew off for a busy day, I didn't worry about him at all. And even better, when I picked him up, his report said he had a "great day" and he slept for almost two hours on the cot!! YEA!! It was especially cute because they were in the gym when I arrived and I got to see Carson "shopping" in the pretend kitchen. He had a basket over his arm and was picking food to put in it. So cute!! When he saw me, he smiled and kept playing!! No crying!!

The doctor and other friends had said it would take him a month to adjust and sure enough it did! Just as I was about to give up, he came through!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Carson & Ellie's Dinner Date

We had a fun dinner date with the Hook's on Friday night. Carson thoroughly enjoyed Ellie's toys. Especially her tea party table, her box of dress up high heels, her baby doll, and most of all her super duper slide! He's a dude's dude so we were quite amazed at how quickly he adapted to wearing and walking in pink fluffy pumps, drinking daintily out of a tea cup, and feeding the baby doll a bottle of milk. What didn't suprise us was his instant love of the slide.

Here is a cute video of Carson and Ellie having a tea party.



There there was a cute video of the slide, ruined by the adults talking in the background. What a shame. Listen closely and you'll hear why we all laughed hysterically after realizing our conversation was caught on tape!



Last but not least, Carson sliding, Ellie cheering him on, and this time Mommy not realizing that she was talking about very un-childlike things while the camera was rolling. Naughty Mommy! Fortunately our kids don't have a clue just yet!

Friday, January 18, 2008

Sneaky Chef- Take One, Take Two, Take Three

In an effort to feed Carson healthier food, I purchased the book "The Sneaky Chef". Very popular with the basic idea that you sneak veggies and fruit into every day food. Carson loves fruit but isn't a big fan of veggies. Those who know me, know I am NOT a cook, nor a baker. I really don't enjoy cooking, I hate following recipes, and would much rather make something from a mix or box.

So my first attempt with the Sneaky Chef was Chocolate Chip pancakes. I very carefully mixed a healthy blend of white flour, wheat flour, and wheat germ. So far so good. But then things went downhill quickly. I had not read the entire recipe before beginning. I was simply following down the list of ingredients. Fourth ingredient, applesauce. After I dumped that in, I discovered that I was supposed to mix all the dry ingredients, then mix the wet ones, and THEN mix them together. Oops. No big deal, right? Right?!?

So after that I dumped in the egg, honey, chocolate chips, baking powder, and milk. The mix was a bit thick, ok, really thick so I thinned it out with more milk. The recipe told me to!! Then I had to take care of Carson for awhile so the batter sat. And sat. The pan got hotter and hotter. When I was finally ready to cook the pancakes, I burnt the first batch. No problem, I've VERY used to burning things. I threw those out and tried again, this time with a cooler pan.

The next two batches proceeded to burn while the insides of the pancakes remained a solid gooey mess. On the third attempt, I even tried (don't laugh) microwaving them to get the insides to cook. No good. Microwaving chocolate chips is a BAD idea. Then I added more milk to the batter thinking it was still too thick to cook. By this time Carson was in full on melt-down due to low blood sugar levels and Jeremy was in partial melt-down due to screaming child and his own low blood sugar (because at this point, I've put our dinner on the back burner-where it proceeded to get dried out and rubbery).

I finally put the remaining batter aside, fed Carson a cereal bar, and fed us rubbery, dried out Thai noodles (of course they were out of a box). Stop feeling sorry for my family please, we get by just fine.

With everyone more or LESS satisfied, I got out the griddle because Jeremy told me it makes perfect pancakes every time. I kept the heat low, and low and behold, the outsides got brown. But after 30 minutes of cooking, the insides were still gooey messes. No pancake should have to cook for 30 minutes!! I gave up when I ran out of batter and the clock struck 10. Hopefully I saved the receipt for that darned book!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Checking In

Sorry but we haven't taken any new pictures. Well, there was one but I was trying to catch a HUGE nose snot bubble on Carson's face but I wasn't quick enough. So here's an update on everything:

1. Talking- Carson has made major progress in this area in the last week. He's really experimenting with new sounds and trying much harder to mimic us. It's very exciting and we test him all the time. I won't bore you with the list but it's growing daily!

2. Awareness- Speaking of talking, Daddy taught Carson to say "poo poo". At first I was a little annoyed because I thought he was being silly. But as it turns out, Carson loves to point out when we (or any unsuspecting house guest) go into the bathroom, that we are going "poo poo". Or "pee pee" as of late. He is VERY interested in what's going on with the toilet and wants to be right in the action. Sometimes a little too close for comfort. He also is now telling us when he goes poop! He's right about 75% of the time, 15% of the time he actually just tooted, and 10% of the time he just wants the attention. If he really did poop, he runs into his room for us to change him. It's hilarous!

3. Potty training- some of Carson's friends have little potties and with the discovery that Carson knows when he pooped, I started researching potty training. I think we'll wait a few more months but I did run across this hilarious uTube video on the subject. Apparently it's a Japanese potty training video with sub-titles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFVoLz88hiU

4. Daycare- One "good" day, one "sad" day, and one "okay" day. The third day he did manage to sleep for 25 minutes in a crib, which was a major improvement over nothing. He is crying a lot according to his report which is hard to hear but he does seem to have fun. Apparently he cries when other kids' parents come in to pick them up. He even did it when I was there.

5. Aggression- not sure if this is just typical 18 month old behavior or if I can blame daycare but suddenly Carson is getting very aggressive. Pushing, hitting, taking toys away, head-butting, and the infamous "mine, mine mine" is now happening. He got 7 time-outs in 45 minutes last week for being mean to poor Ian. We're working on the concept of sharing, "my turn, your turn" and "walk away" from a situation that upsets you.

6. Tantrums- oh yes, sweet little Carson has reached the tantrum stage. The two most embarrassing ones so far (I'm sure there are more to come). First one was when I had to take away the kid-sized stroller from him at Segals. He came absolutely unglued!! Face down on the floor, screaming with all four limbs flailing. It was awesome! I got him calmed down, or so I thought, and then two minutes later he did it again in the middle of the bank. I left him there screaming while I made my deposit. Got quite a few stares and a few laughs.

7. Cuteness- Last week when Ian was over, Carson woke up first. I couldn't find him and realized he was trying to open the door to the bedroom where Ian was sleeping. It was so cute and frustrating at the same time! He wanted to play with his friend (who he had tormented just hours earlier) and I wanted his little friend so keep sleeping for his own sanity! Then today when Ian was over, Ian woke up first. He played with a toy for about a minute and then walked over to Carson's door and started knocking. I was laughing so hard! Those turkeys!

8. Music class- Carson just started his third semester of music class. His last one was last June or so. I was very worried that he wasn't going to pay attention and I was going to be singing by myself for $150. Much to my surprise, Carson remembered the room and ran right over to the tubs of instruments. He had a great time and his dance moves are getting better and better! The cutest part is when we are in the car, I play the CD of songs for him. When a song ends and it's quiet before the next song, I hear "moh" from the backseat! He wants more songs!

9. Binkie- we had a rough week with daycare, sickness, a night at a friends, and enough other things that Carson had his Binkie for sleeping for almost a week. The mean mommy that I am, I took it away because he really doesn't need it. Unfortunately he had become addicted again and went through withdrawal. It took three nights of crying himself to sleep (no less than 45 minutes) to kill the addiction. Now we're just back to naptime.

10. 18 month dr. appointment- A whopping 27.5 pounds. However his height wasn't quite right. The nurse was very nice but didn't care that Carson kicked right when she marked his leg. So according to her, he is 33.5 inches. Even the doctor thought that was wrong but apparently it isn't important enough to re-measure. We tried to measure him ourselves that night but it's nearly impossible to do!

Monday, January 07, 2008

Children's Museum

After being snowed in for yet another weekend, we decided to visit the Children's Museum. It was expensive but a lot of fun!

Build it and they will come.
Sliding down!
Wet and more wet!
This jacket isn't really water-proof!
I can almost reach!
More short people!
Trains are cool!
Fun!

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Carson's First Day of "School"

Today was a big day in the Rader household! It was Carson's first day of "school" at the local YMCA daycare. Friends and family kept asking me if I was sad. I was 20% sad and 80% was thrilled to be back in action, working without my sidekick. Let's face it, he's an active, loud little guy and it is quite challenging to work with him running and screaming into my phone. The only part that made my heart heavy was his new nap situation. He's always been a good sleeper and loves his cozy crib in his dark, quiet room. So it was really hard for me to imagine him adjusting to sleeping on a cot with ten or more other toddlers side by side.

I didn't call to check on him. I really didn't have time as I was on my phone with clients or agents all day long. I did wonder around one if he was sleeping or staring at all the other kids wondering why he was sitting on a cot. When Jeremy and I picked him up at 4:30, he looked like a crazy college kid who'd pulled an all nighter studying for finals. His cheeks were red, his eyes were swollen, his speech was slurred. It turns out he hadn't slept AT ALL!! Nor had he eaten lunch. But according to his report card, he had a great day singing songs, pretend cooking in the kitchen, and he didn't bite or hit anyone. Sounds like fun!

We got him home and he was a MAJOR crankpot! He wouldn't eat dinner and kept saying, "night night". We threw him in the bath at 6 pm instead of 7 pm and then tried to get him in bed. He cried and cried and cried. Finally we gave in and threw him a binkie. Out like a light.

Here are the pics from his first day. He saw me packing my briefcase and decided he needed to pack a bag too. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the camera bag couldn't go with him to school.




Snow Week

We had snow for over a week and Jeremy captured a few pictures of our beautiful winter wonderland!



Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Happy New Year!

New Years Eve found us all at the Leo's home where we also partied with the Hook's. The kids are all the same age so it's fun to see them all play together! Carson brought over his new trampoline to share with his friends and they seemed to enjoy it. Jeremy thought it would be exciting to kick off the night with a special drink. That plan backfired miserably, as the drink he concocted was a super sweet Mai Tai with 4 shots of alcohol. It just meant that we had too much to drink too early and crashed even earlier. Dinner was a yummy deep friend turkey and we had "Better Than Sex Chocolate Cake" for dessert! The real party started after the kids went to bed. Fortunately they are still pretty portable. Thank goodness for pack n plays!

The Hostess herself opening her Hostess gift . . . Budlight for Jenn!
Supper for the toddlers!
Yummy! I love my Duck jersey!
Notice the two fister in the background ;-) And Andrew is enjoying the trampoline!
How many men does it take to temp a turkey?
Master carver Blair!
Back seat carvers!
Dinner at last! Yummy!
No adult pictures after the dinner hour will be published on a kid's webpage ;-) Happy New Year!

How Old is Carson?

How Old is Keaton?